* One of the most creative events of the year for the design community is a week away. Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS (DIFFA) holds its five days of events starting next Thursday at Pier 94 in tandem with the Architectural Digest Home Design Show. While the show highlights the best in materials, technology, art and design, the DIFFA extravaganza is a fundraising delight where designers, design schools and architects decorate a dining table in any manner they want.
Examples range from the colorful to the abstract to the downright bizarre, with each table getting more "oohs and aahs." In addition to a cocktail party Thursday and a gala on Monday, March 26, a public viewing will be held from Friday, March 23, to Sunday, March 25, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. The price of admission for the public viewing to the Architectural Digest show is $25 per person. The cocktail party costs $150 per person. All proceeds go to DIFFA, one of the biggest charities combating AIDS.
This year's gala honors Alfredo Paredes, executive vice president and chief retail officer for Ralph Lauren Corp., with the inaugural David Rockwell DIFFA Service Award. We hear Ralph Lauren himself will present Paredes with the award. Can't wait to see what his table will look like. If you want to see his house, it's featured in the April issue of Architectural Digest magazine.
* There aren’t many of these left — a wood-frame house in Manhattan is sitting on the market just waiting to be snatched up. At 312 E. 53rd St. (below), the little white house with a slate mansard roof is as charming as a snowy full-moon night in New England. On the market for $2.6 million with annual taxes of almost $20,000, the historic home was built in 1866 by Robert and James Cunningham. Standing 18 feet wide with five fireplaces, three bedrooms, open kitchen, backyard and original wide-plank wood floors, the house is 2,280 square feet.
Sandwiched between Beekman and Sutton Place in walking distance of Midtown's Restaurant Row and the United Nations, this is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for someone who wants a home, investment and story to tell. The house has some pedigree: Past residents include Lincoln Kirstein, founder of the New York City Ballet, and Muriel Draper, a society maven who was friends with Gertrude Stein and Henry James. Corcoran's Patrick Lilly and Christine Toes share the listing. Call them at (212) 941-2551.
* Tired of Craigslist rental scams or bait-and-switch from some real estate agent you met online? We are, too. Sharif Fakhr was so fed up he did something about it. He launched InsideDigs.com, a website that already has more than 7,000 members which helps renters meet other renters to find no-fee apartments. The "peer-to-peer community" lets prospective renters share information about their apartment (when the lease is up, details on the space), with people leaving apartments to get first dibs on potentially moving into the unit. So far, it's working.
"We can save people thousands in fees by taking brokers out of the equation," says Fakhr, who realized all the problems of renting a home in New York when he moved uptown to help his aging father. "Also, our listings are made by the renters themselves. If you like an apartment coming on the market in three months or less from now, you can try to place a hold on it with the renter and their landlord. Everything is so last-minute in New York. This helps avoid that or makes finding an apartment easier."
The idea is growing. Inside Digs is based in New York City but is building a following in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Chicago and San Francisco. Go to InsideDigs.com for more. Check out the tongue-in-cheek commercial Fakhr shot with his friends.